Personal warming
There’s so much hype since Al Gore invented global warming. (Yeah, I know he didn’t, but he represents the media buzz and scare-tactic scientists who need money to justify their studies.) The polar caps are apparently melting into the oceans, which are going to rise and flood out millions of people. The earth will scorch and there will be no more crops so we’ll all starve to death.
Back in the 70s, the big scare in the media that got research grants was global cooling. We were in a cold phase that was going to create polar masses to cool the whole planet and cause the minute fish food to disappear so the bigger fish would starve to death and all of us would suffer. We’d be wearing parkas on the equator, practically, and all the food crops would die for lack of a place to grow them as ice covered the fields.
Maybe we just know too many little pieces of truth and have too many measurement tools. We get selective information, repeated over and over in an alarming cacophony. Rather than expecting the ongoing ebb and flow of climate variance as the earth stresses and relaxes, it’s easy to believe theories of past and future ice ages as fact… or that earth is becoming a global crock-pot.
Instead of enjoying the food and clothing we have in abundance, compared to the rest of the world, we are frightened and apprehensive in a self-absorbed death wish. It prevents us from gazing in wonder at our jam-packed refrigerators (who in the past had ice in July, beside the Eskimos – not even the richest tropical king!) How about our castles (how big is my house, compared to those of tribal or medieval kings and princes?) What about our libraries, public and private – rulers depended on scribes and elders and other people for a fraction of what each of us knows. We are swathed in plenty, and yet fearful and ungrateful.
Scripture tells us about God’s hand of protection over people who respect him and observe his ways. And that he withdraws that shield from the disobedient and proud. “Humble yourself and pray, and I will heal your land,” he told Israel. Sometimes I wonder if God’s withdrawal might be part of what’s going on, besides normal fluctuations.
I’m going through a personal warming – stressors of studies, work, and relationships combining to heat up my core. There’s not enough time, brain, or heart to sift it all. It’s not enough to kill me, but it makes me anxious.
It’s good to remind myself that God is in control. If he was big enough to invent these marvelous ecosystems of place, time, and people, he can keep everything going without being taken by surprise by market conditions or wars or famines or any other disaster.
To think he invites us into relationship with himself. To think he hears us as we humble ourselves and pray! That’s something to be thankful for when seeking perspective in coming days.
Read more:
*(God) "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." Genesis 8:22 NIV
*O God, I beg two favors from you; Let me have them before I die. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name. Proverbs 30:7–9 NLT
*Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 1 Thess. 5:23-24 NLT
Back in the 70s, the big scare in the media that got research grants was global cooling. We were in a cold phase that was going to create polar masses to cool the whole planet and cause the minute fish food to disappear so the bigger fish would starve to death and all of us would suffer. We’d be wearing parkas on the equator, practically, and all the food crops would die for lack of a place to grow them as ice covered the fields.
Maybe we just know too many little pieces of truth and have too many measurement tools. We get selective information, repeated over and over in an alarming cacophony. Rather than expecting the ongoing ebb and flow of climate variance as the earth stresses and relaxes, it’s easy to believe theories of past and future ice ages as fact… or that earth is becoming a global crock-pot.
Instead of enjoying the food and clothing we have in abundance, compared to the rest of the world, we are frightened and apprehensive in a self-absorbed death wish. It prevents us from gazing in wonder at our jam-packed refrigerators (who in the past had ice in July, beside the Eskimos – not even the richest tropical king!) How about our castles (how big is my house, compared to those of tribal or medieval kings and princes?) What about our libraries, public and private – rulers depended on scribes and elders and other people for a fraction of what each of us knows. We are swathed in plenty, and yet fearful and ungrateful.
Scripture tells us about God’s hand of protection over people who respect him and observe his ways. And that he withdraws that shield from the disobedient and proud. “Humble yourself and pray, and I will heal your land,” he told Israel. Sometimes I wonder if God’s withdrawal might be part of what’s going on, besides normal fluctuations.
I’m going through a personal warming – stressors of studies, work, and relationships combining to heat up my core. There’s not enough time, brain, or heart to sift it all. It’s not enough to kill me, but it makes me anxious.
It’s good to remind myself that God is in control. If he was big enough to invent these marvelous ecosystems of place, time, and people, he can keep everything going without being taken by surprise by market conditions or wars or famines or any other disaster.
To think he invites us into relationship with himself. To think he hears us as we humble ourselves and pray! That’s something to be thankful for when seeking perspective in coming days.
Read more:
*(God) "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." Genesis 8:22 NIV
*O God, I beg two favors from you; Let me have them before I die. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name. Proverbs 30:7–9 NLT
*Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 1 Thess. 5:23-24 NLT
